Ranking Every Single Camel Song

I am back from a bit of a hiatus in which I was endlessly busy. 10-12 hour school days on top of 24 hour work weeks really just left me with pretty much no time to continue this project. However, since I got some free time right now, I'm gonna do my best to get the next few entries out semi-consistently. Lets pick up where we left off...

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34: Never Let Go (Camel)

Never Let Go is to many people, a landmark song for Camel. It's even a bit of a trademark title for the band spawning a live album with the same name (a very good one at that!). This track is very epic and proggy opening with a cool acoustic guitar passage that features one of the rare cases of Camel using the mellotron, which proves to be all over this track. It fizzles out before the full band kicks into the main verse/groove and I don't know what it is, but there's something so satisfying about the sound of the full band just turning it on like a light switch. The vocals come in accompanied by this very driving rhythm section, light organ playing and these melting electric guitar lines. This song packs a real memorable verse and hook, I love how it comes out of the first chorus with a sweet 12th fret guitar harmonic before very smoothly dropping into the second verse. For my money, it's the jam at 2:23 that really defines this song. It comes straight out of the second chorus with these sharp and steady guitar strums while the organ teases you in the background. We have this mellotron flute playing come in on top of a very solid rhythm section before switching back to the string mellotron tone which is used as a very earthy and pretty lead instrument briefly. The ending playout and guitar solo of this song gives me chills with soaring mellotrons and vocals creating a very full sound. A great track and one that is deservedly held to high esteem.

33: Ice (I Can See Your House From Here)

And already I'm sure many people wish I never started this list back up again with this placement. While this song may come in towards the tip top of your personal lists, keep in mind that this is still well into the upper echelon of my ranking here. Ice is a very unique instrumental piece of music and it really opened the door to a new style of extended and very emotive guitar solo based tracks that the band would continue to explore on following albums. It opens with very subtle instrumentation with Kit Watkins piano and Andy Latimers more clean guitar working together to introduce the main theme. After about a minute and a half the drums come in sweeping us into a very smooth and floating 6/4 groove with some very free-flowing electric piano details all over the place. Latimer comes in with what has now become a very signature sharp tone as the rest of the band plays around him. Kit Watkins gets a solo and as usual uses some of those unmistakable Kit Watkins tones you hear all over his works with Happy the Man and on the song Wait. The amount of "feel" in this song is in the stratosphere, and the music really comes to life because of just how in tune everybody is with each other. The keyboard solo gives a slight hint of what's about to come, ultimately building up some slight tension before Latimer explosively begins one of his most epic solos ever kicking it off with the theme from the introduction, this time in a much more upscale and grand fashion with every member working hard to set the stage for Latimer to unleash everything he's got. I love how this solo ends fading away (likely into the heavens) as this very strange and earthy keyboard tone fills the void before this very melancholic acoustic and clean guitar duet begins closing the track on a very interesting and sorrowful note. I think this is a great piece of music, unfortunately it comes in on my least favorite Camel album and I think in turn, I don't reach for this song as often as the songs ranked above this on the list. Which is a shame, because every time I do revisit the studio version I'm always amazed and I always pick up on new details.

32: The Final Encore (Rajaz)

This isn't a track that I see mentioned very often, but I think it's awesome and very dynamic. Right out the gate the intro to this song is absolutely stomping with these very menacing guitar and choir lines, it's almost a bit psychedelic actually. This song is like a ghostly tour through the desert with tons of different sounds and passages throughout. Coming out of the intro, you hear these sharp strings briefly play through a very symphonic sounding arrangement before Latimer drops this amazing and somewhat quirky middle eastern sounding motif with one of the fattest guitar tones I've ever heard. The echoing voice of Latimer comes in opening with the line "After Words, and Long Goodbyes" of course referencing Stationary Traveller. I usually don't jive with self referential stuff in music, but this is such a cool nod to the past without being too crude about it. I also gotta say, there is something very brooding about how Latimer sounds on this track, his voice sounds like it's thundering down from the clouds. Instruments are seamlessly layered on top of one another as the song progresses featuring some unique middle eastern percussion choices throughout. At 4:04 the main chorus melody from the following track "Rajaz" is beautifully introduced and looking at the bigger picture, this gives the album a great sense of cohesion. It comes back around into that main groove now with Latimer soloing on top of it. In the last two minutes we get a beautiful payoff with highly orchestrated instrumentation reminiscent of lots of the material on Harbour of Tears. The general tone of the track flips into a more bright and hopeful feel, I always think of this song as the first several minutes being the desert at night, while these final two minutes are like the sunrise and start of a new day. I'll use the word quirky again to describe this section, some of the tones used sound a little bit dated. Mostly the weird percussive shaker tone they use, but if you ask me some of those cheaper sounding tones are just part of the Camel Productions era charm. In the last minute Latimer drops one more nasty head-bobbing guitar solo before the keys close out the track. I'm not sure where most people would rank this song, but I love it. It's a very interesting and unconventional piece of music and it's songs like these that give me a high level of respect for Rajaz, rather than ride a nostalgia wave, Camel continued to try something new with every single album well into the 90s and 2000s.

31: Skylines (Rain Dances)

Skylines is a great, bouncy instrumental on the latter half of Rain Dances with sweet dueling synth and guitar leads from Bardens and Latimer respectively. It has a pretty steady and fast paced bass line fading the track in and it remains mostly constant throughout the track. Throughout this track there's fantastic melodies on all fronts starting off with the guitar. The motif it kicks into at 1:00 is just pure ectasy with some really nice electric piano and saxophone subtleties from Bardens and Collins. Keeping the high energy, Bardens takes over with a glorious synth solo boasting a fantastic and unique tone as usual. There's a lot of really neat and playful instrumental shifts accompanying this section as well. His extended solo leads right back into that sweet aforementioned guitar motif/chorus before Bardens and Latimer come together to trade off some soling to close out the track. Though this song is a little shorter and maybe not as dense as some of the previous entries on this list, I think it's a great song that comes and does it's thing really well. It's always one of my favorite parts of Rain Dances.

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The List So Far:

(Best)

Skylines

The Final Encore

Ice

Never Let Go

Straight to my Heart

Separation

Drafted

Six Ate

Mystic Queen

Supertwister

Wing and a Prayer

Friendship/Migration/Rhayader Alone

Slow Yourself Down

Spirit of the Water

Beached

Curiosity

Under the Moon/Watching the Bobbins

Squigely Fair

Arubaluba

Shout

Fox Hill

The Last Farewell (Birthday Cake/Nudes Return)

Storm Clouds/Cotton Camp/Broken Banks

Aristillus

Running From Paradise

Cobh/Send Home the Slates

Changing Places

Sasquatch

Long Goodbyes

Captured

For Today

You Are The One

Vopos

Docks

Starlight Ride

Hopeless Anger/Whispers in the Rain

Tell Me

Simple Pleasures

Irish Air/Irish Air (Reprise)/Harbour of Tears

The Miller's Tale

Elke

Generations/Eyes of Ireland

Refugee

Summer Lightning

City Life/Nude

Landscapes

Cloak and Dagger Man

No Easy Answers

Dust Bowl/Go West/Dusted Out

You Make Me Smile

Wait

Lies

End of the Day

Missing

West Berlin

One Of These Days I’ll Get an Early Night

Rose of Sharon/Milk and Honey

Down on the Farm

The Hour Candle

Mother Road/Needles

Highways of the Sun

Pomp and Circumstance

Reflections

Who We Are

Selva

Camelogue

Please Come Home

Pressure Points

Eye of the Storm

Fingertips

Todays Goodbye

After Words

Heroes

Sheet Rain/Whispers/Little Rivers and Little Rose

Manic

Neon Magic

The End of the Line

Hearts Desire/End Peace

Rain Dances

Rainbows End

The Homecoming

Your Love is Stranger Than Mine

Remote Romance

(Worst)

Welcome back! Today we have 4 more excellent songs and I got plenty to say about each of them.

38: Six Ate (Camel)

Six Ate is an awesome instrumental jam track with an abundance of sweet grooves, riffs and twists and turns. The song immediately kicks into a punchy 6/8 (what are the odds?!) groove with light guitar playing and a somewhat percussive organ. There's a brief break where Bardens plays a nice descending organ melody before kicking back into that intro passage again. Throughout the song, every member is able to trade-off very interesting and well developed parts. At 1:28 the band slows themselves down into a more mellow and spacey section before back into that distinct 6/8 groove with this filthy guitar tone now playing that descending organ melody from before. My favorite part of the song is the headbanging rhythm it enters at 2:10 with this distorted and droning synth playing a little back and forth with the organ. It's just so damn cool. This is one of the only songs off the debut that uses synth (I believe there is some on Arubaluba? That siren sound towards the beginning?) and there's some more subtitles during this section including what kind of sounds like an alien saucer effect. The band keeps playing with Latimer and Bardens trading off little riffs and melodies often times even coming together finally tying it all back together concluding with that opening section again. This is a track that always gets me excited and has me following every single note they play. This is a song I could only ever imagine being on the debut album because it just has that sound and tone to it that is so unique to its respective album.

37: Drafted (Nude)

Today Nude says his last farewell with in my opinion, its greatest peak coming in towards the front-end of side 1. For starters, Drafted is easily a top 3 Camel vocal performance for me. Colin Bass absolutely hits it out of the park here with a very soft and emotional delivery. I'd say the two best Camel vocalists are Sinclair and Bass, but I think Bass is a slightly better fit, arguably. Soft piano opens up the song accompanied by some subtle cello. The verse begins with just piano, vocals and fretless bass which really adds a great texture to this song. This somewhat minimalist part of the song is just beautiful, after a little bit of this an ethereal wave of synth and guitar rises into the soundscape with the guitar playing a softer version of the main melody of the song (why wasn't this melody reprised later in the album!?!?!?). Quickly, the guitar turns to a sharper solo tone while the drums kick in and Latimer delivers as always. The second verse comes in now with the full band playing and it does a very fine job of setting up the absolutely transcending closing play-out as it strips down to just vocals, synth and bass for a brief moment. "Taking a life, for a life, to be free," Latimer ascends into this ungodly guitar melody and I just get chills every time. Every note the rest of the band plays properly aids in making that guitar hit just a little bit harder. A great song, as is the suite of songs it kicks off.

36: Separation (Camel)

I've always felt this track is very underrated, it's always been one of my favorite songs from the debut. It opens with this awesome heavy riff kicking right into a very driving and epic verse with these quick descending guitar breaks between each line. After the second verse it comes into a little guitar solo interlude with Andy Ward playing off of it on the drums. This is a very memorable drum track in general with good fills and grooves throughout. This section hits a peak and the bass and lead guitar softly drift us into the softer and very memorable chorus toting strong lyrics and a really cool chord progression. It repeats the verse once more before leading right into one of the most badass outros in Camels catalog. The guitar plays these fast descending triads while a super distorted organ plays this menacing build-up around it. The drums properly aid in this buildup, what I find really unique about this is that I feel like the organ and guitar parts are kinda flip-flopped from what you would conventionally expect each to play. Think something like the intro to Rhayader goes to town where the keyboard is playing that background part while the guitar plays lead, here it's the opposite of that. The buildup is released such an absolutely hype and nasty payoff with the drums going totally ham on top of the aforementioned playing of Latimer and Bardens. The first time I heard this ending it totally blew me away, to this day it still catches me off guard with just how awesome it is.

35: Straight to my Heart (Rajaz)

This is another track I feel is somewhat underrated, but to be fair it was a bit of a grower for me. The track opens with this very dusty and kinda bluesy acoustic guitar playing, when the vocals come in I almost get some light Dire Straits vibes from it. This song really fits the general vibe of Rajaz with its middle eastern feel. Soft melodic electric guitar lines play on top of the acoustic guitar soon followed by reflective and emotive vocals from Latimer. At 1:19 the whole band joins in creating a really awesome ominous arrangement. Latimer plays another great memorable melody with that beautiful Rajaz guitar tone. Throughout the second verse there's subtle melodic guitar playing and piano underneath the vocals closing with the line "takes my breath away," which I like to think is a subtle nod to Breathless, perhaps a bit of a stretch though. Following that it comes into the chorus which leads into a quality little soft instrumental section which offers a bit of time to breath before it strips down to a cool steady bass and acoustic guitar riff. I love this part as Andy throws in some restrained bluesy soloing on top of it. This section slowly builds and rises for just the right amount of time until absolutely erupting into an explosive climatic guitar solo that just hits you like a brick. It's so incredible and the keys really aid in the grand-scale feel of it. After reaching a very high peak, it settles back down into that cool ominous piano and acoustic guitar passage now without drums. This acts as a nice cool down to close out the song. I love this song, it indeed takes my breath away.

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The List So Far

(Best)

Straight to my Heart

Separation

Drafted

Six Ate

Mystic Queen

Supertwister

Wing and a Prayer

Friendship/Migration/Rhayader Alone

Slow Yourself Down

Spirit of the Water

Beached

Curiosity

Under the Moon/Watching the Bobbins

Squigely Fair

Arubaluba

Shout

Fox Hill

The Last Farewell (Birthday Cake/Nudes Return)

Storm Clouds/Cotton Camp/Broken Banks

Aristillus

Running From Paradise

Cobh/Send Home the Slates

Changing Places

Sasquatch

Long Goodbyes

Captured

For Today

You Are The One

Vopos

Docks

Starlight Ride

Hopeless Anger/Whispers in the Rain

Tell Me

Simple Pleasures

Irish Air/Irish Air (Reprise)/Harbour of Tears

The Miller's Tale

Elke

Generations/Eyes of Ireland

Refugee

Summer Lightning

City Life/Nude

Landscapes

Cloak and Dagger Man

No Easy Answers

Dust Bowl/Go West/Dusted Out

You Make Me Smile

Wait

Lies

End of the Day

Missing

West Berlin

One Of These Days I’ll Get an Early Night

Rose of Sharon/Milk and Honey

Down on the Farm

The Hour Candle

Mother Road/Needles

Highways of the Sun

Pomp and Circumstance

Reflections

Who We Are

Selva

Camelogue

Please Come Home

Pressure Points

Eye of the Storm

Fingertips

Todays Goodbye

After Words

Heroes

Sheet Rain/Whispers/Little Rivers and Little Rose

Manic

Neon Magic

The End of the Line

Hearts Desire/End Peace

Rain Dances

Rainbows End

The Homecoming

Your Love is Stranger Than Mine

Remote Romance

(Worst)

Today we have an exciting batch of songs to talk about. Four that are all quite different from each other as well. Yesterday I listed it as day 6.... it's unclear whether or not I have brain in my head sometimes.

42: Friendship/Migration/Rhayader Alone (The Snow Goose)

Camels instrumental masterpiece The Snow Goose has arrived on the list today with a little mini-suite of three tracks. Starting with the shorter Friendship, we have a very interesting mainly orchestrated track here on the album. The beginning always makes me think i'm watching Monty Python with its kinda whimsical galloping sound. I love the sections with Bardens and his electric piano backed by the somewhat chilling orchestration. I don't have too much to add about this track other than its a nice little playful precursor to Migration which is what i'd consider the centerpiece of these three songs. We quickily hear a drum roll build us up as we kick into a fast paced groove in 7/4 backed by a kinda groovy staccato electric piano. This is a quality I really like about this album, there's a nice contrast between the more soft low-key songs and the more intense accelerating tracks in turn making these kinds of tracks more exciting and gratifying pay-offs. We have some wordless vocals front and center playing simultaneously with the lead guitar laying down memorable lines start to finish. About mid-way through Peter Bardens starts playing this compelling part on top of it and i'm not quite sure what it is exactly he's playing, it's almost reminiscent of an acoustic guitar. The song strips down into Rhayader Alone, which closes side one reprising the opening melody to Rhayader now played in a more melancholy and minimalist fashion on the electric piano. The song is very soft and sorrowful with just Latimer and Bardens contributing. It's another instance where the next track "Flight of The Snow Goose" hits harder because of the contrast in moods. That song acts as a glimmer of light and hope in a point in the story that implies are protagonist is at low, but we'll talk about that more another time....

41: A Wing and a Prayer (Breathless)

I shamelessly love this song, i'd even put it higher depending on the day. Along with the rest of Breathless, its just so blissfully joyful and cheery opening with this kinda funky electric piano and very fast picked 12 string guitar. I really like how this album sounds, all the instruments are crystal clear and it just sounds so full of life and punchy. Peter Bardens sings lead with catchy vocal lines all around accompanied by some subtle slide guitar easing us into a nice, breezy pre-chorus. The actual chorus is brilliant to me, we have these dueling vocal lines and each one is catchy and melodic on its own. However, actually listen to what the lyrics are saying and how they contradict each other. One voice is clearing singing from a very optimistic and perhaps romanticized point of view fitting right with the music, while the other is a singing with a very downbeat pessimistic outlook on love. All this while Andy Latimer goes to town on his 12-string guitar. The two voices join in unison to sing the title of the song to close out the chorus (they also sneakily hide a measure of 7 before kicking into this part). As a side note, the electric piano part is very well developed on top of all of this. Coming out of the chorus we get a small Mel Collins led instrumental break where he actually plays a few different parts on his various woodwinds. Coming out of that we kick back into that lovely chorus now a little higher in the register, likely up a key now. This chorus is extended and ends up fading out the song. This isn't a flashy or intense Camel song, but it's just so catchy and well written that it just has to find a place more towards the upper echelon of the list.

40: Supertwister (Mirage)

The first song from Mirage to make its appearance on this list is the wonderful Supertwister clocking in a 3 minutes and 23 seconds. Smokey flute playing commences the track with a very head-bobbing groove, Latimer is the star of this track, but it isn't on the guitar this time around. This transient section of the song has some intricate electric piano helping to really fill the soundscape. After a mere 13 seconds the band starts opening cash registers from all sides, well, there's some awesome percussion going on! This is on top of this very nasty organ/bass riff soon joined by faster paced and somewhat folky flute playing from Latimer. This track is distinctive in its arrangement, it does a lot in its short run-time and takes plenty of turns while always feeling seamless. You have electric piano throwing in a riff as well as the bass and organ trading off parts very lightly descending us into a mellow and warm flutey passage at 1:17. The amount of feel in the playing of every member is glorious with a great attention to dynamics. Bardens electric piano plays around the flute in waves to greater emphasize what Latimer is playing. It's so amazing, this passage is played out just long enough before kicking right back into that more intense folky section properly closing out the song. They were so happy with the end product they cracked open a cold one and presumably called it a day!

39: Mystic Queen (Camel)

I initially had this track quite a bit lower on the list, I started a write-up for it several days ago only to revisit it realizing I actually like it a lot more than I thought. It moved up quite a bit, and a similar thing just happened to another track that was supposed to be in this spot here at 39. So with that said, i'm going to pick up where I left off. This is a very hypnotic softer track with a really cool and mellow groove to it. It's led by acoustic guitar which opens the track up with a somewhat brooding picked guitar riff (sounds like A minor my ears). Bardens backs this up with some softer organ while the rhythm section plays off the vocals. Over the course of the verse, the organ slowly moves more towards the front of the mix eventually taking the lead with a sweet melody. Not to be outdone, Latimer adds his own melodic and kinda explosive playing on top of it. I love how this song flows and almost has that sort of steady "riding a Camel" meter and feel to it. At 1:39 this very menacing organ buildup begins climbing eventually reaching a crescendo that is properly released in to a more subtly hopeful sounding instrumental passage. I adore this part of the song, the chord progression is sweet and all the instruments take advantage of this little break and play with quite a bit of breathing room. Latimer starts playing this sweet guitar melody that just builds and builds along with the other instruments turning into an all around fiery delivery. It reaches its peak with a darker organ riff that brings you back into the opening riff and verse. The final 45 seconds or so are very atmospheric and hmmmmm.... :thinking: mystic. The organ is quietly playing an alteration of main chord progression while the guitar plays these soft volume swells with a few acoustic strums towards the end. Just an awesome softer and moody Camel song.

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The List So Far

(Best)

Mystic Queen

Supertwister

Wing and a Prayer

Friendship/Migration/Rhayader Alone

Slow Yourself Down

Spirit of the Water

Beached

Curiosity

Under the Moon/Watching the Bobbins

Squigely Fair

Arubaluba

Shout

Fox Hill

The Last Farewell (Birthday Cake/Nudes Return)

Storm Clouds/Cotton Camp/Broken Banks

Aristillus

Running From Paradise

Cobh/Send Home the Slates

Changing Places

Sasquatch

Long Goodbyes

Captured

For Today

You Are The One

Vopos

Docks

Starlight Ride

Hopeless Anger/Whispers in the Rain

Tell Me

Simple Pleasures

Irish Air/Irish Air (Reprise)/Harbour of Tears

The Miller's Tale

Elke

Generations/Eyes of Ireland

Refugee

Summer Lightning

City Life/Nude

Landscapes

Cloak and Dagger Man

No Easy Answers

Dust Bowl/Go West/Dusted Out

You Make Me Smile

Wait

Lies

End of the Day

Missing

West Berlin

One Of These Days I’ll Get an Early Night

Rose of Sharon/Milk and Honey

Down on the Farm

The Hour Candle

Mother Road/Needles

Highways of the Sun

Pomp and Circumstance

Reflections

Who We Are

Selva

Camelogue

Please Come Home

Pressure Points

Eye of the Storm

Fingertips

Todays Goodbye

After Words

Heroes

Sheet Rain/Whispers/Little Rivers and Little Rose

Manic

Neon Magic

The End of the Line

Hearts Desire/End Peace

Rain Dances

Rainbows End

The Homecoming

Your Love is Stranger Than Mine

Remote Romance

(Worst)

I'm back from a 3 day break! From this point forward i'm going to be switching to 4 songs a day as the write-ups are getting longer and more time consuming. Perhaps i'll build some suspense in the process, let us continue!

46: Curiosity (Camel)

The second track to appear on this list off the debut album was more of a grower for me. It has a soft jazzy and low-key opening with an organ eventually charging you right into the main and very groovy riff. It kicks into the verse with a very interesting vocal melody as well as these awesome subtle piano lines, I like when Camel (scarcely) uses the regular acoustic piano. The chorus has these awesome hard hitting distorted vocals properly exemplified by the other instruments kicking it into overdrive alongside them. Call me crazy, but this chorus wouldn't sound out of place in a King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard song. A little melodic guitar break acts as a bridge between the first two verses eventually leading into a brief somewhat psychedelic interlude with reverberating vocals and organs. At 2:23 we kick into a sweet instrumental break with more piano playing up and down the keys like clockwork along with some fat distorted organ sitting behind it. The jam evolves into something reminiscent of Santana with some organ soloing and a sweet jazz guitar solo from Latimer. After this extended jam it ties all together with a 3rd verse bringing back those echoing vocals in the final stretch. I used to rank this along the bottom of the album with another song coming up briefly, but over time I've really come to appreciate both of them quite a bit. This track covers a lot of ground in 6 minutes and its not a track that necessarily grabs you with a big melody, payoff or crescendo but I really get into it with its feel, general sound and layers.

45: Beached (Nude)

Coming straight out of Docks, Beached comes straight out the gate swinging with a very driving rhythm section and impending buildup in the instrumentation. The guitar plays this dark thunderous melodic riff before the synth takes over on lead. This synth part has always blown my mind, not just the actual notes its playing but also the somewhat earthy tone of it as well as the very subtle interplay with the guitar. Straight out of that the guitar plays another similar feeling riff while the rhythm shifts into a stomping groove. A brief kinda parade-horn interlude acts as a quick break before returning into the action with these fast palm muted guitars alternating between that and explosive guitar breaks backed by some very memorable drum lines. This song is really just a great melodic safari with lots to cling on to while condensed into a very short period of time. At 2:14 we're treated to a soaring and celebratory guitar riff before we come full circle back into the main riff from introduction which now is extended into a nice jam where all the instruments breath and let loose. This song and Nude in general was always a sigh of relief for me. I think it's clear by many of the placements on this list that I Can See Your House From Here is not one of my favorite Camel albums, (but keep in mind it still has songs yet to be mentioned ;)) however with Nude I think they stuck a smoother landing and Latimer and the gang successfully kinda briefly broke the identity crisis I feel they were in the midst of. For a 70s prog band in 1981, releasing very progressive songs like this and even a full concept album is pretty bold in my opinion.

44: Spirit of the Water (Moonmadness)

Clocking in at just over 2 minutes, Spirit of the Water drifts you out of side one of Moonmadness. It's a very tranquil and ethereal song with soft and subdued acoustic piano providing the blueprint. It is, to my knowledge, the only Camel song to use recorders which provide the main melody of the song. The verse is very minimal with only the aforementioned piano on top of Peter Bardes vocals which have some sort of watery effect placed on them. There isn't much movement throughout the song by design, it mostly stays the same until the ending where the piano properly and calmly closes out this brief visit to a mystical river. This is always an album song for me, its important in reaffirming the mood and atmosphere of Moonmadness with its very restful quality.

43: Slow Yourself Down (Camel)

Coming next on the list is the first Camel song, and a very good introduction to the band at that. I saw this up next on my list and I though: "Whaaaat?!?! This can't be this low!" I scanned the rest of the list and this is just where it falls for me. Though it made me realize that this really isn't a bad placement, its well into the upper half of the list. So for the song, the intro once again kinda reminds me of early Santana with a very jazz rock feel. The song immediately introduces you to the very distinct organ tone heard throughout this album as it is the first thing you hear in the song and its all over the opening verse. It smoothly flows right into the chorus. What I really like about this hook is that the vocals more or less keep the same sort of woozy energy and tone from the verse while it's the instruments that build and pack the punch around the vocals. Coming out of the chorus the organ teases you with this darker riff before kicking back into the verse/chorus. Straight out of the second chorus it wastes no time immediately bursting into a striding rhythmic buildup before very briefly stripping down into a groovy bass riff, every time I hear that percussion quickly come in behind it I get pumped up. What follows is simply a fiery and intense classic Camel jam that just hits you with a fuzzy wall of sound. Uncontrollable headbanging aside, at 3:32 losing no momentum we see the first instance of Camel doing the unison guitar/vocal melody thing you see on other tracks like Migration off the Snow Goose. This eruptive and developed jam play-out properly closes out the song. Simply an awesome Camel song. It doesn't quite reach the highest peaks for me, but its an exciting opening to the debut and discography.

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The List So Far

(Best)

Slow Yourself Down

Spirit of the Water

Beached

Curiosity

Under the Moon/Watching the Bobbins

Squigely Fair

Arubaluba

Shout

Fox Hill

The Last Farewell (Birthday Cake/Nudes Return)

Storm Clouds/Cotton Camp/Broken Banks

Aristillus

Running From Paradise

Cobh/Send Home the Slates

Changing Places

Sasquatch

Long Goodbyes

Captured

For Today

You Are The One

Vopos

Docks

Starlight Ride

Hopeless Anger/Whispers in the Rain

Tell Me

Simple Pleasures

Irish Air/Irish Air (Reprise)/Harbour of Tears

The Miller's Tale

Elke

Generations/Eyes of Ireland

Refugee

Summer Lightning

City Life/Nude

Landscapes

Cloak and Dagger Man

No Easy Answers

Dust Bowl/Go West/Dusted Out

You Make Me Smile

Wait

Lies

End of the Day

Missing

West Berlin

One Of These Days I’ll Get an Early Night

Rose of Sharon/Milk and Honey

Down on the Farm

The Hour Candle

Mother Road/Needles

Highways of the Sun

Pomp and Circumstance

Reflections

Who We Are

Selva

Camelogue

Please Come Home

Pressure Points

Eye of the Storm

Fingertips

Todays Goodbye

After Words

Heroes

Sheet Rain/Whispers/Little Rivers and Little Rose

Manic

Neon Magic

The End of the Line

Hearts Desire/End Peace

Rain Dances

Rainbows End

The Homecoming

Your Love is Stranger Than Mine

Remote Romance

(Worst)

Welcome back to the next installment of ranking every single Camel song! We are quickily closing in on the top 50, I got a few takes today...

64: Docks (Nude)

This is actually a pretty unique track and a genuinely progressive song that I find hard to compare to anything else in their discography. It opens with this kinda stomping and marching bass and drum groove with these slide guitars rushing past you. The song continues to build power which is finally released around the 2:05 mark into this really blissful synth passage which to me is the peak of the song. The main groove kicks back in with some subtly nasty guitar. The final 15 seconds of the track has the music just kinda melting around you as it gets ready to kick into "Beached." I feel like this song could have been developed just a tad bit more, but what they lay down here is really cool.

63: Vopos (Stationary Traveler)

This song has an awesome synth/piano groove that kicks in about a minute in after some a neat synth intro. I actually don't have all that much to say about this track relative to its placement here but I just think its a strong song. I like when the drums come in and the main piano/synth riff gets a little bigger and more electronic sounding. The vocal melodies throughout are super solid but the section it kicks into at 3:20 when it strips down to just Piano, Ambient Synths and Vocals ("Can it be a nightmare?") is great. They do a fine job dragging this section out just long enough so when the whole band kicks back in it hits pretty effectively. One of my favorites off Stationary Traveler.

62: You Are The One (The Single Factor)

Welp, we now only have on remaining track off The Single Factor, but this track deservedly stands on the podium along with No Easy Answer and the other which will appear on the list in a little bit. The opening kinda gives me Alan Parson Project vibes. This is similar to Vopos where it's not the type of Camel song that is going to blow my mind, but it's just a very well written, catchy and more simple Camel track. The vocal melodies opening the track are on point and the organ that's quickily joined by a synth during the pre-chorus is sweet. The chorus is really big and catchy and when the second verse comes around afterwards they do a nice job of building on the first by adding these catchy synth lines and punchy bass parts. All in all, its surely one of my favorites from The Single Factor (which I don't think is a bad album) and it's one of their best tracks in this vein.

61: For Today (A Nod and a Wink)

Aaaaaand this is where I get crucified. This is a favorite of many, and I know one particular user in the discord and subreddit who considers this their favorite Camel song, and that's all good with me. However, I like this track, but it doesn't move me all that much. The track opens with these pianos that kind of remind me of some of the Hymnals you might hear in a church, an acoustic guitar along with Latimer vocals take the wheel and this part is pretty enjoyable and the lyrics are pretty memorable. A couple minute in it drops into a sort of Pink Floyd-esque guitar solo that by this point in the discography I find a little too standard. After this there's a shorter synth solo and the tone sounds nearly identical to that of the one used on "Ice," which is an interesting choice. My favorite part of the song is actually the somewhat darker organs played right before the big ending crescendo section. They do a really nice job of setting up that big drop into the closing minutes of the track. In all honesty though, I enjoy this part but it's just a tad underwhelming for me. Maybe its because every time I hear it I picture Mr Bean singing Hallelujah (1:42 timestamp). I think this track ends on a nice note in the final minute with some reflective sounding instrumentation and the train we hear at the beginning of the album slowly fading away. I know this placement might be disappointing to some folks but I need to be honest with myself. Good song, just not one of my favorites.

60: Captured (Nude)

One of the more faster paced and intense moments off the latter half of Nude. Highly recommend the live version off Pressure Points which I think eclipses the studio cut. It's got those kind of Camel-signature fast paced drums going pretty steady throughout but I like the spin put on the accompanying instruments using these descending synths and faster paced saxophones that kind of set the stage. I love the picked acoustic guitar parts and the section at 1:08 with the downward arpeggios played on the synths. A little past the mid-point the spirit of Peter Bardens is channeled with a sweet synth (damn i'm saying that word a lot this time around!) section leading into what i'm 99% sure is the Guitar and Saxophone playing an awesome line in unison. For a shorter track there's actually quite a bit jammed into it.

59: Long Goodbyes (Stationary Traveler)

Another potentially controversial placement, but I truly like this song a lot and it kinda pains me to put it here as well. I think my sole complaint here are the vocals, I'm not huge on the voice of Chris Rainbow on this track as I find it a little bit lifeless and devoid of emotion which a song like this really needs. From an instrumental standpoint though, absolutely fantastic track. We open with this faster paced picked acoustic guitar with some soft flute playing alongside it, plus the ear candy fretless bass playing is back once again. I love the chorus here, very catchy and the instrumentation makes up a bit where I think the vocals lack. Even though the transitions between the verses and chorus's aren't the smoothest, it doesn't bother really bother me. While all this is nice, Andy Latimer rips such a fantastic and incredible guitar solo in the final 60-90 seconds ending the song and album on a high peak. Melodic, emotional, and I can imagine this was somewhat of a satisfying and comforting note to end on for those fans of Camel who were in limbo until 1991 likely assuming the band was over.

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The List So Far:

(Best)

Long Goodbyes

Captured

For Today

You Are The One

Vopos

Docks

Starlight Ride

Hopeless Anger/Whispers in the Rain

Tell Me

Simple Pleasures

70Irish Air/Irish Air (Reprise)/Harbour of Tears

The Miller's Tale

Elke

Generations/Eyes of Ireland

Refugee

Summer Lightning

City Life/Nude

Landscapes

Cloak and Dagger Man

No Easy Answers

Dust Bowl/Go West/Dusted Out

You Make Me Smile

Wait

Lies

End of the Day

Missing

West Berlin

One Of These Days I’ll Get an Early Night

Rose of Sharon/Milk and Honey

Down on the Farm

The Hour Candle

Mother Road/Needles

Highways of the Sun

Pomp and Circumstance

Reflections

Who We Are

Selva

Camelogue

Please Come Home

Pressure Points

Eye of the Storm

Fingertips

Todays Goodbye

After Words

Heroes

Sheet Rain/Whispers/Little Rivers and Little Rose

Manic

Neon Magic

The End of the Line

Hearts Desire/End Peace

Rain Dances

Rainbows End

The Homecoming

Your Love is Stranger Than Mine

Remote Romance

(Worst)